Tornadoes · United States · Alabama · 1998

F0 tornado, Carrollton to Gordo, Alabama, May 9, 1998

From Carrollton to Gordo, this F0 tornado ran 2.2 miles across Pickens County on May 9, 1998, touching down at 7:09 PM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50,000 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. F040 to 72 mphthis tornado

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 mph

    Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

  4. F3158 to 206 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. F4207 to 260 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. F5261 to 318 mph

    Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

  7. Unrated

    The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

The record

Rating
F0
Date
May 9, 1998
Touchdown
7:09 PM CDT (00:09 UTC)
Path length
2.2 miles (3.5 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000
County
Pickens County
Touchdown point
33.280, -88.120
Lift-off point
33.280, -88.100
Record number
239

What the Weather Service recorded

A weak tornado touched down in a wooded area south of Gordo producing damage along a 6.5 mile track crossing from Pickens County into Tuscaloosa County. Damage was primarily in the form of downed trees though several structures sustained minor damage. This tornado apparently came out of the same thunderstorm that produced the weak tornado on the north side of Carrollton earlier. This tornado damage path also crossed the damage path that occurred with the F3 tornado on April 8, 1998.

A weak tornado touched down northwest of Carrollton and uprooted and snapped several trees. The tornado actually moved across the Pickens County Hospital on the north side of Carrollton on SR 17. Minor roof damage was done at the hospital but there were a number of trees down.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

The warnings

41 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:28 UTC, 41 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:45 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:28 UTC00:45 UTCTornado WarningBMX
00:41 UTC01:15 UTCTornado WarningBMX
02:55 UTC03:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBMX

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Moderate Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 09:56 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Birmingham, AL (KBMX), 00:00Z

0.2 hours before the tornado, 124 km from the path. May 10, 1998.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Birmingham, AL at 00:00Z on 1998-05-10Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 213 joules per kilogram, CIN -309, lifted condensation level 1398 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Birmingham, AL at 00:00Z on 1998-05-10The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 241 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 70 knots.1939587897Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
213 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-309 J/kg
Surface CAPE
499 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1398 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
70 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
241 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
355 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
6.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Birmingham, AL (KBMX), 12:00Z

11.8 hours after it, 124 km from the path. May 10, 1998.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Birmingham, AL at 12:00Z on 1998-05-10Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 211 joules per kilogram, CIN -41, lifted condensation level 819 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Birmingham, AL at 12:00Z on 1998-05-10The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -3 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 55 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
211 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-41 J/kg
Surface CAPE
185 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
819 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
55 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-3 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
86 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.4
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Tuscaloosa Municipal (TCL), 47 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
22:50 UTC80.664.4130° 6 kt1003.7
23:50 UTC78.864.490° 5 kt1002.7
00:12 UTC78.864.4110° 8 kt1001.7
00:50 UTC7768360° 1002.7

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1998 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 9, 1998

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 96:35 PM CDTF0Ouachita, AR3.5100
May 96:35 PM CDTF1Lawrence, AR14.050$70,000
May 97:20 PM CDTF0Pickens, AL6.570$40,000
May 98:36 PM CDTF0Ashley, AR1.050

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.